Scots hospitals facing ‘uphill struggle’ of £500m repairs

A report looking at the performance of Scotland’s health service has warned there could be an uphill struggle to pay for the maintenance of hospitals and health centres across the country.

Health boards across the country have fallen behind in maintaining and repairing NHS hospitals and health centres, according to the report from Audit Scotland.

The watchdog warns that continued budget cuts mean it will be harder for health boards to make repairs and address the £500million backlog which was previously estimated in 2009. Last year it emerged that NHS Grampian had a £169million maintenance backlog. Figures obtained by the Press and Journal revealed that more than a third of the north-east’s health buildings were crumbling or in a state of disrepair.

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